Category Archives: Side Dishes

There are days when we all just need a fun kid’s meal. Nothing fancy, just plain fun. Pigs in a blanket were perfect.

I cut turkey dogs in half and then wrapped them in one croissant piece. I then baked them for about 11 minutes at 375 degrees.

This is what the little puppies look like when they are all done.

While the little piggies were cooking, I cut out the centers of the brussel sprouts and then sliced them up like you would cabbage for slaw.

I then heat up a little olive oil, butter and lemon juice. When the liquid was hot, I added the sprouts. I cooked them for about 90 seconds.

I thought the sprouts were delicious, but I love all thinks lemon. BF apparently doesn’t. I thought he didn’t like it on some things, but the dislike extends to all things lemon, except my lemonade cake. So next time, I’ll have to try them a different way.

I don’t remember if I’ve ever discussed my history with bananas on this blog. I love fruit. Absolutely adore it really. In fact, if I wouldn’t get insanely sick or malnourished, I’d probably only eat fruit (and bread and dessert). However there has always been an exception. I hated bananas. Notice the past tense? Well, about a month and a half ago, I needed a snack at work and really wanted fruit. But there were only bananas. I figured it’s been about 10 years since I had last tried one, so I gave it a shot……..and LOVED it. I had heard that frozen bananas we also especially tasty, so I decided to give those a try too…and I’m now completely obsessed. I have one every night and after saying hello to bf and Winston, it’s the first thing I do.

As a result, I now have bunches and bunches of bananas lying around the kitchen. Sometimes they ripen too quickly to be frozen, which happened this week, so I decided the time was perfect for a batch of banana bread. It just so happens, I have an amazing family recipe.

Banana Bread

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

2 eggs

1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas (3-4 medium)

1/3 cup water

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ baking powder

½ cup chopped nuts (optional)

First, I combined the butter and sugar using a hand mixer until they were well blended. I then added the eggs and mixed again.

Then, I mashed the bananas, one at a time using a fork in a small bowl and then added the mash and the water to the big bowl.

After mixing in the banana and the water, I added the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda and stirred together. The mix should be clumpy and quite wet.

I then put the mix into the greased pan and cooked the bread for about 53 minutes. With some retrospect I would have baked it a few minutes longer. The top center part was still a bit gushy, but any longer than a few more minutes and the outsides would have been burnt.

After ten minutes of cooling the bread in the pan, cut around the outside with a knife and then flip it onto the rack to cool completely. The last step if very important. Cool COMPLETELY before slicing into the loaf. I am always too anxious to try it to wait and I always regret it!